The development of an enabling self-administered questionnaire for enhancing reading teachers’ professional pedagogical insights

Abstract

There have been many national and provincial studies on children’s literacy levels in recent years in South Africa. However, none has determined the teachers’ own understandings of the core indicators of an effective reading teacher. During a preliminary feasibility study, the researcher was surprised to discover how many under-qualified teachers there were who had a limited professional understanding of current primary school reading instructions, approaches and practices. To assess more accurately these experienced teachers’ perceived professional competencies in teaching reading, the current study reports the development, refinement, validation and implementation of a conveniently self-administered profile of professional competencies designated the “Core Indicators of an Effective Reading Teacher Questionnaire” (CIERTQ). The researcher (the writer) gathered and analysed theoretically coherent feedback data from more than 1000 qualified, experienced and active reading teachers to establish a set of competencies describing teachers’ professional understandings of their pedagogical reading tasks. These clarified roles - as outcomes of the thesis - can be fed back to, and integrated with, teachers attending future literacy programmes and policies in economically developing countries, as well as serving to enable present and future teachers of reading to self-identify and improve possible aspects of their daily classroom activities. The present study is grounded in the social constructivist, socio-and psycho-linguistic theories originating from the works of Piaget (1969), Vygotsky (1930), Cambourne (2004) and Goodman (2005). Their foundational principles and literacies, together with relevant educator competencies specified and described in the South African National Education Department’s Norms and Standards for Educators document (2000) and in both the Foundation Phase (Grades R – 4) (1997) and Intermediate Phase (Grades 4 – 6) (1997) were defined and then applied to the derivation of all items in the CIERTQ. The CIERTQ instrument evolved through three phases of validation. First, the preliminary improvements in the questionnaire developed through seven formative versions as it passed through successive pilot trials with different small groups of self-selected reading teachers (teachers from grades 2 – 7, principals, subject advisors, learning support teachers, final year teacher training students and lecturers) from 1999 to early 2002. Phases two and three formed the major part of this research. Participants in phase 2 were introduced to Concentrated Language Encounter (CLE), an innovative reading programme implemented and expanded annually between 2001 and 2005, in 4900 new classrooms in 308 developing schools, in South Africa’s Western Cape region. Phase two involved further development and refinement of the CIERTQ. Version 8 was administered to 533 reading teachers in early 2002. It was re-administered to 360 teachers six months later. 173 of the pre-tested teachers were present at both the pre-and repeat workshops. After qualitative and quantitative analysis of the generated data, version 8 of the CIERTQ was improved and version 9 was reformulated in readiness for another large-scale trial. Phase three was the final administration of the CIERTQ, version 9, to a new relevant selfselected study group of 144 reading teachers who were attending the 2003 National Professional Diploma in Education course in teaching Literacy in the primary schools offered in the Education Faculty of the Cape Technikon. Throughout phases two and three several cautious varimax normalised factor analyses were engaged to refine and develop the questionnaire, within the context of teaching reading in economically developing schools in South Africa. The final instrument comprised 41 items which clustered into eight factors or dimensions of pedagogy. Particularly prominent factors with factor loadings between 0.50 and 0.72 were interpreted as (1) pedagogically strategic items (which included reading for meaning and application, reading for strategy development and other items of support); (2) reading for meaning and interpretation; and (3) reading for socialising (which included reading for research and surveillance). Almost all of the Cronbach alpha reliability coefficients for the eight sectors of versions 7 to 9 of the CIERTQ varied in the range of α = 0.70 – 0.87. Finally, the responses to the items were re-analysed and presented in relation to the foundational theories of literacy and to the South African’s Department of National Education, Revised National Curriculum Statement (2002) to produce an underlying coherent pattern of interpretation. Thus, overall, a valid and reliable instrument was produced, through refined consensus, with potential for use in augmenting further literacy research. Such future-orientated research is already a recently stated major policy focus of the current Minister of Education in South Africa for the years 2006 – 2009. This study presents a unique contribution to knowledge. The CIERTQ appears to have wide validity for primary schools that operate with multilingual reading cultures and diverse reading approaches, particularly in economically developing regions of South Africa and possibly beyond. The investigation makes recommendations for modifications to policy in terms of (a) introducing minor reform to the existing learning outcomes and (b) formulating an additional five new assessment standards for the South African’s Department of Education, Revised National Curriculum Statement (2002) Home Language document. For policy writers it may be useful to study the emergent well-defined sector names of the CIERTQ which convey a broader and a more holistic understanding of reading than those expressed in the policy document. The findings of the study answer the key research question: “Is it possible to develop, refine, validate and implement a profile of professional competencies of effective reading teachers for the South African context?” The answer is clearly in the affirmative, thereby corroborating and consolidating the current literacy theories of Cambourne (2004), and Goodman (2005) and the South African Norms and Standard for Educators (2000) document in South Africa’s unique educational context at the commencement of the 21st century.